Rajkot: The ugly side of Rajkot’s famed imitation jewellery business was exposed with the rescue of at least 27 children, all between 8-14 years, who were forced to work in inhuman conditions with miserly remuneration.
The racket of bringing all these children from West Bengal came to light after two kids escaped from the house of Sikandar Sheikh and his wife Pakeezah in Rajaram Society on Sant Kabir Road on Monday. The kids, who ran away to Junagadh, were allegedly beaten up regularly by Pakeezah and also kept hungry for days. Both children were rescued at Junagadh by the government railway police (GRP) who then informed local child welfare committee chief Ramila Kathiriya. The children even showed them their injury marks.
Kathiriya lodged a complaint against the couple with the GRP which arrested them. However, they got bail from the railway court. Sikandar and Pakeezah are natives of West Bengal but have been living in Rajkot and doing jobwork for imitation jewellery units.
After the two children informed Kathiriya about other kids, they informed Rajkot deputy commissioner of police Balram Meena, who along with the social justice and empowerment department officials Kanaksinh Jhala raided Sheikh’s house and Pitrukrupa Imitation unit located side by side and rescued 25 other children from his house.
Sources said that an offence will be lodged against the couple in the city on Wednesday. The imitation jewellery unit is owned by one Dilip Ramani and his partners, who are likely to be questioned in this case.
The children described how they were forced to do dangerous works like welding using gas bottles and others. Police sources also said that Sheikh and his wife used to convince people from poor families by telling them that their children would be paid Rs 5,000 a month. “Sikandar and his wife took away Rs 3,000-Rs 3,500 of the Rs 5,000 salary from the kids calling them expenses incurred for their lodging and food,” said Jhala.
Jhala said that some children were made to even work for nearly 14 hours a day.
The children said that there were a total of 70 kids who were brought from Bengal to work here.
Rajkot is a hub of imitation jewellery, a largely unorganized industry, in India with annual turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore. According to industry sources, there are more than 1,000 imitation jewellery units in the city which employ close to 2.5 lakh people direct or indirectly.
The children who were rescued from imitation jewellery unit on Tuesday
